John Epperson aka LYPSINKA is a NY based drag performer who has been delighting audiences around the globe for the past 40 years. This Goddess of Show Business lip-synchs to meticulously edited, show-length soundtracks culled from snippets of outrageous 20th-century female performances in movies and song. It’s unashamedly old-fashioned entertainment that has kept the multi-talented Epperson at the very top of his profession and a gay icon too.
He’s about to perform THE FABULOUS LYPSINKA SHOW in London at the AND WHAT? QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL so we tracked him down in NY to talk about why he is returning to the UK after a 16 year absence.
QG: Welcome to QUEERGURU , after admiring for years from afar it’s great to finally get up closer. You are not only recognised as Goddess of Show Biz but in your field you are considered like Royalty. Is that the reason you are whizzing off to London now that there are two spare royal titles?
J
E: (laughing) The Royal family seems rather complicated and conservative so I’m not sure If I would want to be part of it. But maybe if I had whatever Joan Collins has
QG: She’s a Dame.
JE: That might suit me better than being a Princess
QG: This will not be your first performance in London for 16 years : did you miss it and the Brits
JE: I love going to London, I think I’ve been there as a visitor, but I have many friends there but as I’ll only be staying 7 days this time it is going to be tough to see everyone I know
QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL
QG: So you are performing at one of our favorite events And What Queer Arts Festival : without giving it all away what can the good folks can expect from you this time around.
JE: A greatest hits kind of show and the people in London who have seen me before may see bits they remember from the past. Although 16 years is a long time and there may be a whole new audience for all I know
QG: Have you noticed anything about British audiences in the past that are different than American ones.
JE: When I first appeared there in 1994 I got a very big hand on my opening night and my English dresser told me that was highly unusual, but I was very happy. I actually find English audiences just as responsive as those here in NY.
WIGSTOCK
QG: The last time I saw you was when you were appearing in Town Hall in PTown, where QUEERGURU is based in the summer. But the very first time I saw you was at Wigstock when it was still based in Tompkins Park. How fab was it for you to be back in the new reformed Wigstock in 2018?
JE: Well it was very fascinating as it was a completely different kind of venue but it was such a success that I was really surprised that they didn’t do it again this past year. It was different because they were charging an admission which wasn’t cheap. But there was a reason for that because the venue had to be rented as it wasn’t like Tompkins Park in the past which we got for free until ‘beloved” Giuliani made such a stink so they had to move it over to the Piers.
The first one there was in 1994 but I didn’t appear as I was performing at the Edinburgh Festival, and then they had subsequent events there including one on a boat. Lady Bunny never invited me to that as she knew that I would so hate being trapped on board.
QG: Did you love performing at the ‘new’ Wigstock tough
JE: I thought it was great fun, but I was backstage most of the time so I didn’t get to see what they did onstage but I did make some new friends there. I met JINKX MONSOON at that event, and also DINA MARTINA who they call a legend.
QG: How amazing is she?
JE: Oh she’s hilarious and wonderful
ACTING
QG: In recent years you’ve been doing more acting, is that something you see yourself doing more of in the future?
JE: If I am asked, and if I am given the opportunity. I did a play 3 years ago as they needed someone who could play the piano, and Wallace Shawn the writer knew I could . I had never worked together before with Scott Elliot the Producer/Director but he’s a New Yorker and he knew who I am , so they asked me
Three years have gone by and I haven’t done any conventional acting since then. I’ve always considered myself an actor as to me John Epperson is the actor and Lypsinka is the female character he portrays. Granted I am often lip-synching which is not a traditional form of acting . However the process going through my head when i am performing Lypsinka is very much like that of a traditional actor
QG: If you had your time again would you have done it all the same where you have achieved so much purely on your talent or would you opt for having a chance of having instant stardom on Drag Race?
JE: I don’t know how I would feel about Reality TV if it had existed back in 1985. Now I find it humiliating. People describe the State of the Union Address the other night as a “Reality TV’ moment which is such a turn off for me. I’m not saying tha Reality TV is fascist TV, but we do have a President who got into Office because he was on a Reality TV show and he is causing a lot of unhappiness. He’s going to betray the very people who supported him if he gets elected for another 4 years.
WHAT’S NEXT
QG: What’s next for you after London?
JE: I have written some scripts for myself and for other people . And once you get them out into the world it’s a waiting game, and that’s what I am doing.
QG: Can you persuade Lady Bunny to do more Wigstocks?
JE: I can talk with her but now she shares the name Wigstock with Neil Patrick Harris. They were hoping that when they released the HBO documentary of the Event that may attract a Sponsor but that hasn’t happened yet.
QG: We have just rewatched your 2018 performance there and you really looked like you were having such a blast on stage
JE: I had no idea if the audience would know who I was or give a damn, or it would so as well as it did
QG: But the point is that the millennials didn’t have to know who you were to love what you were doing
JE: It seems like they did. And there was so much stuff left on the stage balloons and props and god knows what. I spent the whole 10 minutes on stage scared that I would fall down and slip on whatever items that were scattered over the floor.
Younger audiences seem to think that I invented something, They call me the OG and a Legend
QG: When you are in London be sure to visit the East End that’s where the best queer scene is and some extraordinary alternative drag.
JE: I’ll only go there with Barbara Windsor takes me
QG: (laugh) To the English LGBTQ community she IS real Royalty
